SpaceX Successfully Tests Reusable Rocket

Related Tags:

HAWTHORNE, Calif. (CBS/AP) — A Southern California-based space company has successfully tested a reusable rocket it hopes will make it cheaper to go into space.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX released a video on Monday showing the test of its Grasshopper rocket.

During a 29-second flight on Dec. 17, Grasshopper blasted 131 feet into the air from a pad in McGregor, Texas. The 10-story-tall cylinder hovered momentarily and then landed safely.

Earlier this year, a SpaceX rocket sent a capsule full of cargo zipping toward the International Space Station in a first-of-its-kind delivery for NASA. But the rocket failed in a second mission to put a commercial satellite into the correct orbit.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)